Yesterday, as Icelandic whalers headed to sea to begin this year’s hugely controversial whale hunt targeting 250 whales, Campaign Whale led a protest outside of the Icelandic Embassy in London demanding an end to the slaughter.
Campaign Whale was joined by representatives from other leading conservation and animal welfare organisations including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
The protestors unfurled a banner reading ‘Iceland be a nice land – stop killing whales!’ in front of the Embassy and displayed a life-sized replica of a harpooned minke whale, the first of which was killed today. The protest has made headline news in Iceland.
Director Andy Ottaway of Campaign Whale met with the Icelandic Ambassador Sverrir Haukur Gunnlaugsson and handed him a letter calling on the Icelandic Government to call off the whaling.
“The cruel slaughter of whales will not help Iceland out of its financial crisis at all, in fact it promises to make things worse,” said Andy Ottaway, “Iceland needs friends right now and the cruel slaughter of whales makes you enemies, not friends. We are calling on the Icelandic government to call off the whaling immediately.”
The Ambassador was also handed evidence of the British Public’s strong disapproval of Iceland’s resumption of whaling. An opinion poll, commissioned by Campaign Whale and conducted by YouGov, has revealed that 82% of the British public are strongly opposed to Iceland’s whaling, and two-thirds of those polled (64%) were prepared to avoid purchasing Icelandic products such as fish, prawns in protest at the country’s resumption of commercial whaling.
Iceland’s decision to resume whaling was taken by outgoing Minister Einar Gudfinnsson, who announced in January that 100 minke whales and 150 endangered fin whales could be hunted each year until 2013. However, since then a new government has been formed and with it a significant shift in the whaling policy.
The new government recently issued a statement saying that whaling, ‘will be totally reassessed with regard to sustainability and importance for national economy as a whole as well as Iceland’s international obligations and Iceland’s image’ but in the meantime a quota for this year remains in place.
Campaign Whale is calling on the Icelandic government to stop the killing of whales and to switch exclusively to whale-watching instead. In 2008, more than 100,000 tourists went whale-watching in Iceland, demonstrating that in Iceland whales are worth far more alive than dead.
To find out how you can help our campaign to protect whales, please click here to be re-directed to the campaign section on our website.
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